Go out on the street and try to count the smiles. This constant noise, lecturing, and bickering is not a symptom of happiness, but of the trauma most of us live in. It is no coincidence that depression has become a social disease in Poland.
Stratification, stratification, social inequality, the gap between the rich and the poor – this is a rarely studied topic. Would we rather not know how close we are to the countries of the Global South in terms of inequality?
It turns out that GDP per capita in Warsaw is higher than in many EU capitals – the Polish capital has overtaken cities such as Helsinki, Rome, Berlin, Vienna and Madrid. So many statistics. Because it is hard to believe that the residents of these European cities live at a lower standard than in Warsaw. The explanation of this puzzle is simple: there is no such inequality as in our country. Suffice it to say that a resident of Prague-Polnok has a chance to live 16 years less than a resident of Vilanov.
It was more equal. Inequality in Poland continues to grow rapidly
In 30 years of capitalism we have tripled our national income. But has the quality of life for most of us improved since the time of the Polish People's Republic? I do not think so.
We certainly spend more time at work than we did then. Our holidays are much shorter. Most of us are constantly struggling to satisfy ourselves. However, if we fail, we may face debt collection, bailiff enforcement, or even eviction or auctioning off the only roof over our heads – a phenomenon virtually unknown in the People's Republic of Poland.
The most important feature of modernity is uncertainty. In the past, the state was the guarantor of basic social security. Phenomena such as homelessness and unemployment were unimaginable. Today, most of us are walking on thin ice, because the state has refused to take care of us, and the only guarantee of safety in the market is saving. However, 75 percent of respondents surveyed by CBOS have enough savings to last them two months, and 20 percent have no savings at all for a rainy day. This does not mean any frequent consumption, but only that we are constantly living on our ends.
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The saving rate of Poles has never been high, especially compared to the richest countries, but the latest Eurostat data put our country in second last place in the EU. High inflation has reduced real incomes for the population across the EU. In 2022, 12 EU member states recorded savings rates below 10%, including Poland and Greece with negative rates of -0.8% respectively. and -4 percent This means that households spent more than their total disposable income – and therefore either drew on previously accumulated savings or took out loans to finance current spending. Another study (by Thomas Pickett's team) showed that half of Poles have savings of -700 euros.
Young, educated people from big cities try to improve their financial situation by taking additional jobs. However, pensioners or people with low income rarely have this opportunity.
Lunar studies have recently resurfaced showing that Poles are among the three happiest nations in Europe. However, these are the polls in which Poles constantly lie and try to “look” as good as possible. In the meantime, take to the streets and try to count the smiles. This constant honking of drivers, lecturing and yelling at each other is not a sign of happiness, but of the trauma most of us live in. It is no coincidence that depression has become a social disease in Poland, like tuberculosis before it. Up to 30 percent of people being treated for various somatic illnesses also have symptoms of depression that are often unrecognized. This is a serious problem that affects a few percent of the society.
Mother Gynecologist: This is how elites have fun (and treat themselves).
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Unstable forms of employment, overwork, mobbing and very low wages lead to this We are sad. Young people who do not have a chance to find a house and start a family are also bored, they refuse to have children. According to recent estimates, 70 percent of people in Poland do not have a chance to get a mortgage because they earn too little, and at the same time, a large number of them cannot benefit from municipal housing assistance because they earn too much.
The income criteria are set in such a way that few people will participate because resources are scarce and new municipal housing is hardly being built. caused a housing crisis Speculative bubble in the real estate market It primarily affects the younger generation. On the one hand, we have more and more empty apartments that are considered as rentals, and on the other hand, we have many families in excessive density. 3.2 million families have to share an apartment with another family, 12 million people live in excessive density, 44 percent. Young adults (ages 25 to 34) still live with their parents, and one-third never leave their parents' home.
“Poor and middle-class people are getting poorer, while the richest are getting richer just as fast – Poland has not seen such a radical increase in income inequality for years. Real wages and pensions for the majority of Polish women and men are being reduced at an unprecedented scale and pace in the 21st century. At the same time, the incomes of a few percent of the financial elite are growing faster than ever,” the Forsal website reported last February. All this happened despite the fact that PiS initiated a social transfer, the first such major transformation since the beginning.
Apartment law? Even commodities, as long as they are not speculative
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According to Inequality Report 2022, a report on inequality prepared by the World Inequality Laboratory at the Paris School of Economics (where Thomas Pickett lectures, among others), the poorest half of Poles control only 19.5 percent. total income. The richest percent gets 14.9%. A little less than the entire pool, that is, a 50 times larger part of the population.
If, in spite of this, those at the bottom could live with dignity, the wealth of those at the top would hurt less. However, in the conditions of high inflation, the non-compliance with the timely raising of the income criteria for the right to social assistance once again took every fifth Polish family into the hands of moneylenders. And it's hard not to notice that among the fastest-growing one percent are moneylenders.
Returning to the myth of Polish happiness, I would like to draw attention to another systematic study by the CBOS Center, which over the next few years asked Poles about the values they teach. In all studies, a happy family life comes to the fore and is important to at least 80 percent of people. respondents. No other value came close to such a high result. For comparison: 5 percent wanted wealth. respondents.
Can you imagine a happy family without an apartment, children, savings? Living in overcrowding and the constant uncertainty of tomorrow? You can. But it is quite difficult.
Many patriots worry about the decrease in the number of Poles. The number of deaths is still significantly higher than the number of births. This is important not only for the replacement of generations in the social security system, but also for young couples who, partly for economic and housing reasons, decide not to arrange a children's room.
Of course, the decline in the birth rate cannot be reduced to just subsistence issues. Many experts argue that child abandonment is also a result of cultural changes. Therefore, we do not know whether more pro-natalist policies and addressing the housing crisis will help to deal with the demographic crisis. We also do not know according to the survey how many respondents imagine a happy family life without children.
In addition to absolute poverty, which the 500+ program has almost completely eliminated among children, there is also relative poverty, a derivative of inequality. Children from poor families who have relatively expensive smartphones, for example, are criticized as unnecessary luxuries. The problem is that the lack of such a gadget stigmatizes the child in the peer group. There are even places to live Stigmatize, because the place of residence is also a determinant of social status. And some registered addresses even make it difficult to find employment. In a class capitalist society, the lack of certain goods puts a person in constant humiliation.
Economic equality, or even the absence of grossly high inequality, is an important value that determines which societies can be happier. in Წign The spirit of equality Two American epidemiologists, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, argue that societies with lower inequality are happier. Where income is more equal, people live longer and are healthier.
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More egalitarian countries (Scandinavian countries, Japan, Belgium) trust their fellow citizens more, enjoy better mental health and more opportunities for social advancement than residents of countries with less income equality. The latter suffer more from social problems such as drug addiction, teenage pregnancy, illiteracy and violence. Less equal countries have more people in prison, but interestingly, it's not because of high crime. The justice system is simply tougher and tougher in countries with greater wealth inequality.
In short, more equal countries, even slightly poorer ones, are generally happier. Fortunately, Poland with its disparities has to wait.
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